Price, Lloyd
The Exciting Lloyd Price
Born in Kenner, Louisiana and growing up in the suburbs of New Orleans, Lloyd Price knew massive success very early when Art Rupe of Specialty Records visited New Orleans searching for new talents and heard his 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy' and wanted to record it. Price had no band back then, so Rupe hired Dave Bartholomew and his band (which included Fats Domino on piano!) to back Price up in the session. The resulting single was a total chart-smasher and it took a long long time for poor Lloyd to equal such an achievement. In 1954 he was drafted and ended up in Korea, when he returned not only did he find that he had been replaced by Little Richard, but his precious chaffeur, Larry Williams, had also become a Specialty recording artist. But between 1957 and 1959, first under his own KRC records and then after he signed to ABC-Paramount, Price recorded a series of national hits most of which ended up on his astonishing 1959 debut album.